Black and White - Always Elegant....

My friend Lesley came to craft with me today, and brought a selection of flowers to 'Show and Tell!" She had made them with the new Stampin' Up! Bow Punch, after watching a YouTube video. I immediately snaffled a black and white one for the card below, and then Lesley showed me how to make them.

The card front is cut out using the Spellbinders die, Locking  Loops. The black stamens for the flower come from the new SU Bouquet Bigz die, and the bling in the centre of the flower is one of the gorgeous Something Borrowed Embellishments. The Bouquet die and the embellishments are in the Stampin' Up! Occasions 2015 catalogue. Thank You sentiment is from the versatile Blooming With Kindness stamp set.

There is a link below, to the YouTube video, by Amanda Fowler.

Bow Builder Punch Flower

Cheerful Critter Valentine

Love these cute Cheerful Critter stamps, they lend themselves to colouring easily with the Stampin' Up! Blendabilities and there are a number of stamps which fit nicely into the little boxes or banners they are holding. This card features DSP from the Stacked With Love DSP, also the 2.5 inch circle punch and one of the Starburst framelits which mats the circle. Real Red cardstock for the accents.

The sweet little hearts are die cut from one of the Treat Bag framelits. Such good value, the Treat Bag has a number of very useful framelits. Sentiment is stamped from the Crazy About You stamp set.

Hearts and Valentines!

Valentine stamps and cards are not my usual thing, but having seen some of the wonderful cards created recently, I succumbed and bought You Plus Me, Hello Life and the Stacked With Love DSP stack, all from the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue.

I already had the Sweetheart punch and Groovy Love stamp set from the annual catalogue, so here is my first card:

 

This one uses the Groovy Love heart, and a punched out heart from the Stacked With Love paper stack. The glimmer silver heart, the For You and the small red hearts are made using the thinlits that came with the Mini Treat Bag Dies. That set is an absolute 'must-have', as there are so many extras in it apart from the Treat Bag dies. The gorgeous 'LOVE' across the bottom comes from the retired Expressions Thinlits set, and the black frame is the largest framelit from the On Film set, in the annual catty.

Your Perfect Day.

There are no immediate needs for wedding or engagement stamps in my current world, but this new stamp set, Your Perfect Day, in the Occasions catalogue was difficult to resist! Here's my take on it....

The background is also from the Occasions catalogue 2015 and is called Something Lacy. I embossed the background in Smoky Slate and mounted it on grey cardstock. The sentiment was embossed in silver, and the corners punched with a 3-in-1 corner punch by Fiskars....love it. The silver butterfly is Pippi, a Memory Box die. My preference is for Stampin' Up! products, where they are available, and I'm hoping SU will give consideration to the manufacture of similar products.... I love being a SU demo!

My Latest Love - Blendabilities!

My latest hobby - and sooooo relaxing, too - the Blendabilities markers from Stampin' Up! The colours are gorgeous and complement their range of excellent stamps for colouring.....my stash of both Blendabilities markers and stamps grows with every order.

I'm only a beginner but thankfully there are numerous YouTube videos where others share their expertise. Love the Perfect Peacock, and it is a very easy one for newbies to colour. Blendabilities can be used to colour pearls, rhinestones and ribbons...I used plain rhinestones here in the peacock's tail, but coloured the pearl in the next photo.

This one was Blendies fun to do, it is called In This Together; there are some really good ones in the set, including one about shopping! Who doesn't enjoy shopping, especially when it comes to craft purchases???

The background is spotted with Gold Encore ink, using Gorgeous Grunge.

Creating in 2015!

Can it be almost a year, since my last blog? Well, life happens!  I've had two bouts of shingles since the last posting - one bout would have been enough....and then something wonderful happened last year, which has kept me busy, and very delighted. 

What was it? Card classes, here in my unit! One person came, then brought a friend....before we knew it, we had regular attendance of a beautiful group of people, who continue to come here three full days each week. We all get along so well together, and I am absolutely blessed by their friendship and their creativity.

Stampin' Up! have released a new Occasions catalogue, and there are so many gorgeous items in it, they have inspired us to create...I especially love the Butterfly Basics stamps and matching framelits, and have some examples here.

The Butterfly Basics framelit butterflies co-ordinate wonderfully with the Swallowtail stamp from the SU annual catalogue, as in this example. The Swallowtail was stamped in Sahara Sand ink, then fussy-cut before adhering to the white card front, which had been stamped overall with Gold Encore ink and Gorgeous Grunge. The cardstock is Sahara Sand. The medium Butterfly thinlit was die-cut in white cardstock, then stamped lightly using Sahara Sand ink and the gauze stamp from Butterfly Basics stamp set. A light and rather random touch of Versamark ink was then added, just enough to adhere a light sprinkling of gold embossing powder. A few pearls completed the card.   

The next butterfly example is the Swallowtail stamp again, this time stamped on Vellum with Versamark ink,  embossed with white embossing powder then sponged with Sahara Sand ink. It took only minutes to fussy-cut the outline and adhere to the new, gorgeous Something Borrowed designer series paper from the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue. I'm not sure what was used here for cardstock, it is from Stampin' Up! but came out of my pre-folded card container...is it Crumb Cake, or Baked Brown Sugar? They are all very suitable, for our butterfly projects - one of my favourite things to appreciate, about SU products - they all tone and match beautifully.  The gold embellishment is a bead from the local op shop, standing in for when my SU order of Something Borrowed embellishments arrive....they are simply stunning!

A Million and One Thanks

This is one Stampin' Up! stamp set that has caught my eye every time the catalogue was browsed...finally bought it!

Here, the card front with Pool Party border and the centre panel from Everything Eleanor, was done in My Digital Studio, then the flowers from the Petite Petals stamp set were stamped in Pool Party and Island Indigo, and punched with the matching punch. A rhinestone in two of the flowers, a white Top Note die cut inside the card, with an Island Indigo Petite Petal flower stamped in one corner. Cardstock is Island Indigo, I also made some of these cards with Pool Party cardstock. So easy!

The Bikie Gang!

This is a scrapbook page about my elderly friend, Irene. We met in 2005 when my husband was admitted to an aged care facility in Parkes, where Irene was a resident. Irene and I became firm friends, and she used to visit my husband every day when he became a resident in the nursing home section.

My husband and I introduced computers for the elderly, in that aged care facility, and Irene admired from afar, but would never agree to participate. One day she saw me relocating computers to another room, and offered to help.

Here was my opportunity! "Irene, can you just hold the mouse, please...now, we have to test it is working....can you just click on this game thingy....and move it to there....and now click on this green fruit..."

...long story short...she was HOOKED!!!!!

The scrapbook layout below marks a special day in her life...and showed me, dreams never die.....

Retro Fresh!

Have you all been enjoying the slower pace of January, after all the busy pre-Christmas rush?

January this year has been a great month for me....a time of rest and refreshing, with lots of craft activity at home. Card making is very relaxing, and I also bought myself a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine so the month has gone quickly, learning how to use my new toy!

My Digital Studio has scarcely had a look-in, but yesterday I downloaded the stunning new Retro Fresh files, and made the card below.

God's Christmas Tree

This Christmas I have been given the privilege of presenting a message for the Chapel Service in the Aged Care Facility. The rather crudely executed wall hangings below strive to represent the difference between how the world sees the Christmas tree, and how I believe God would have us see it. 

Hang In There.....

The card below was made for a friend who is going through a very challenging time. Her favourite colours are the soft blues and whites...and as I said in the accompanying message..."This card is made with sooo much more love than skill....

My Awesome Family!

Other people may wish to correct me, saying, "You mean, your husband's family". Technically, they would be accurate in doing so, but in every way possible, I regard this precious couple, as MY family! They have been there for me in good times and difficult times, and welcome me at every visit. 

They are simply the BEST!

Change Stamps to Punches in MDS

My Digital Studio program has many exciting features, and a new one I have learned, is to take a digital stamp and change it into a digital punch - as in the example below.

Five Minute Challenge

This scrapbook page is in answer to a Challenge for the Simply My Digital Studio group. We had to create a page in five minutes, using an existing template.

Puff, puff...I did it...in almost five minutes, including Thinking Time...so this may not entirely make sense...my theme was to give thanks for new days, and new beginnings, and the calendar inserts are intended to reflect that.

When I've messed up, or feeling low at the end of a day...then - Hooray for New Beginnings! 

Calm Christmas!

Calm Christmas.....do those words go together, you might ask?

Yes, they surely do, when we enter in to the true spirit of Christmas.

It isn't about the tree, the decorations, or the gifts, but rather the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the one who was truly the everlasting Gift from God the Father. 

My card is made using the Calm Christmas download from My Digital Studio.

Flying Geese!

My former hobby, before I discovered Stampin' Up! and paper craft, was patchwork quilting. Time consuming, expensive, and very satisfying, it was a delightful occupation for many years.

My favourite quilt, and the ONLY one I ever hand quilted, was made in the traditional Flying Geese pattern. It was made as a raffle prize for the nursing home where my late husband resided.

Autumn in Australia

This scrapbook page was an entry in the Simply My Digital Studio Challenge for Monday, 21st October 2013. The Challenge required a page including photos depicting the changing colours of autumn.

I'm not a rabid photographer, and our trees have already prepared their summer clothing...but thankfully, these photos were in the stash from a bus trip we took to Lake Canobolas and the Carcoar area, in 2005.

Bike Racing

The bicycle was a valued mode of transport between 1930 and 1940. Colin was given an old bicycle when he was about eight and in his teenage years he and his brother began bike racing. This was a very popular sport in those years, and we tend to forget that the roads back then were far from the surfaces we have today, being mostly dirt, or at the very best, gravel.

High Street and Albert Street

My late husband, Colin and his family lived in High Street, Parkes - in fact, Colin was born in 1920 in the nursing home directly opposite his home. Colin's father was accidentally killed in 1924 and so Colin's mother opened a mixed grocery shop in her front room, to help make ends meet. No pensions were available in those days.

Colin's mother, Amy became friends with Lindsay Smith, a widower with five children, who lived in the next street. The Smith children and the Hendry children were of similar age and were already friends, and in due course Amy and Lindsay were married.  Amy and her three children moved to Lindsay's house in Albert Street and the two families became one.

Holidays at Manly

Col and I enjoyed three wonderful holidays in Manly, thanks to the generosity of Tony and Helen Bernardi, who gave us the use of their flat for three weeks during the years 1993 to 1995. Below is a two-page scrapbooking spread of our Manly holidays.

Here is the second page of a two-page spread of our holidays in Manly. One of the highlights of our vacation there each year was to visit the Society of Australian Genealogists, in Sydney's historic Rocks area, and further our family research. This was very fruitful, as the story below testifies.